


Of Fathers and Daughters

by maevedarcy



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Human, Alternate Universe - No Hale Fire, Erica Reyes as Erica Stilinski, Fluff, Labelled mature for those reasons, Lydia Martin as Lydia Hale, M/M, Mentions of past abuse, graphic description of a panic attack, there's a happy ending i swear
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-26
Updated: 2014-12-26
Packaged: 2018-03-03 14:36:49
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 17,610
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2854391
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/maevedarcy/pseuds/maevedarcy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>So what if Lydia's dad was the hottest dad he had ever laid eyes on? Stiles would never make a move on his daughter's best friend's dad, that would rude.</p><p>(Or the one where Derek and Stiles are stupidly in love and their daughters know it before they do.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Of Fathers and Daughters

**Author's Note:**

  * For [sweetkait](https://archiveofourown.org/users/sweetkait/gifts).



> Kait, my dear, this might have taken longer than intended but believe me, I never forgot about it. I hope this lights up your day.  
> Stay strong girl, you can do it.

Maybe it was Stiles' fault that they were late on Erica's first day. It could have been his fault that he forgot her lunch and realized halfway there. They would've made it right on time if he had checked twice, but no, not today. Apparently, Erica's first day of school was making him more anxious than it was making the five-year-old.

He parked the cruiser right in front of the main entrance, in what, he was sure, was an illegal way, but he'd be damned if his daughter missed all the new things on her first day.

After dropping Erica at her classroom, he waved one last time through the window and prayed for what seemed like the hundredth time that his little girl would be safe.

Stiles was on his way out when he nearly fell as he was shoved out of the way by a big guy with the most serious case of morning stubble he’s ever seen who was carrying a bossy, redheaded little girl that kept telling him "Hurry up, Dad! Grandma is gonna kill you if I miss my first day, hurry up." He smiled at the scene but forgot about it as he went out and headed back home. He would get a couple of hours of solid sleep before going to work even if it killed him.

\-- --

Stiles decides to take his lunch break before his usual time to go pick up his daughter. When he gets there he notices Erica already waiting for him next to the redheaded little girl he saw in the morning.

"Hi, Erica!" he greets, Erica waves at him and he comes closer to the girls.

"Dad, this is Lydia. She's my new best friend" his daughter blurts out. Stiles raises an eyebrow at that, hearing himself after his first day in kindergarten and telling his mother that Scott was his best friend. He just smiles and decides not to mention anything.

"Are you ready to go home?" he asks.

"We can't leave yet. Lydia's dad is not here." Stiles sighs but decides that there's no point in fighting Erica this early in the day. Besides, a few minutes won't make any difference.

It turns out that it did make a difference, when 'a few minutes' turned out to be half an hour. He had already told one of the assistant teachers to check what had happened to Lydia's dad but they hadn't got any response so they dialed her emergency contact who turned out to be Cora, her aunt and also one of Scott's friends from work.

Stiles and Cora made some small talk before he noticed it was pretty late and he should go. Just as he was getting in the car, he saw a pretty handsome guy with a distinct stubble running towards the school. When the little redhead, Lydia, he reminded himself, ran to meet him, Stiles guessed that was her dad. A fine piece of dad, if he might add.

\-- --

Erica's sixth birthday was supposed to be on winter break, but since she had made friends in school and probably most of them would be away over the break, Stiles decided that it would be a good idea to have an early birthday party with her friends.

So when Erica and him were making the guests list and she didn't mention Lydia, he frowned.

"What happened to Lydia? I thought you were best friends?" he inquired.

"Not anymore. Yesterday she was pissed because I wanted to spend time with the boys and then she wouldn't play with me because I already had made friends with other people."

"But that doesn't mean you have to stop hanging out. You can spend time with all of them."

"She doesn't want to spend time with the boys because they're just learning to read and she already knows", Erica pouted.

"You could invite her over anyway. As a peace offering?" Stiles wanted to be absolutely sure about what she wanted, just in case she regretted later. Stiles knows he regrets that time he was so mad at Scott that he didn't invite him over for his birthday and had to spend it alone with his grandparents.

Erica doesn't reply, but he still makes an invitation for Lydia just in case his daughter wants to give it away anyway.

He knows he did the right thing when Lydia arrives holding her dad's hand next Saturday.

Stiles greets Lydia and tells her that Erica is in the backyard with Isaac. The redheaded girl frowns, but walks decidedly to the back as if to claim her best friend.

"You know, our daughters have been friends for over three months and yet we've never exchanged words. I'm Stiles by the way. And you are?" he leaves the question hanging, expecting the guy to reply, but he seems to be staring the way his daughter left. "It's ok, my brother and his wife are back there. Well, Scott is not really my brother but we've always been like brothers. And my dad married his mom so I suppose that in the end we are actual brothers and- I'll shut up now."

At some point, Lydia's dad directed his gaze at him and raised a questioning eyebrow.

"Would you like something to drink? A beer, maybe?"

"Just water, thanks. And I'm Derek."

"Okay. This way, Derek" said Stiles guiding him to the kitchen. He passed him a glass of bottled water and didn't stare at the way Lydia's dad,  _Derek's_ , Adam's apple bobbed up and down as he swallowed. He absolutely didn't.

After the last guests arrived, a couple of kids Erica had met at the hospital that were healthy enough to assist, Stiles tried to engaged all of the parents in conversation, but it was pointless. Kira's mother was obviously counting down the minutes until it was socially accepted that they left; Heather's mother kept looking down at everyone; Jackson's mother wouldn't stop talking about how adorable she thought her son was, but Stiles had to disagree, he just didn't like the little boy; Boyd's mom wasn't there since she dropped him off and went to take care of Boyd's little sisters. Isaac's dad wasn't present either. The curly boy had been dropped off by a father that didn't seem too content to let the boy out of his sight but declined when invited to stay.

The other adults in the party were Kyle's and Barbara's mothers who weren't taking their eyes from their kids. Stiles knew better than to disturb them when he knew exactly what they were looking for: any signs that their child was having a seizure, even when they were just fooling around with some of Erica's action figures. Then there was Scott and Allison, who never wanted to miss Erica's birthday since they didn't have their own kids yet. Stiles's dad and Melissa were there too, chatting animatedly with Jackson's mother, when Stiles got fed up of listening to her.

Derek, however, didn't seem very comfortable being there but it looked as if he would stand everything for Lydia's sake. So naturally, Stiles made it his mission to make him comfortable, no matter what.

"So, Derek... are you married?" Stiles mentally face palmed for such a nosy question, but didn't take it back.

Derek took some time to consider his answer. "I am but Lydia's mom and I are separated."

Stiles was dying to know more, but he kept his mouth shut and took a sip of his energy drink.

"Are  _you_  married?" Derek asked.

Stiles most certainly did not gob at the question. At the curious glances he got from most of the parents, mostly mothers who had tried to feel him up at least once, he swallowed and tried to make himself look respectable. He didn't succeed though. Derek was giving him an amused look but didn't mention a thing.

"I'm not" Stiles finally replied. "I'm a single father."

Derek looked slightly surprised, opened his mouth as if to ask something but decided against it and closed it again.

Stiles waited for something, anything, but when Derek says nothing, he resolves is a good time as any to sing happy birthday.

After the cake and a game of musical chair that ended up in Erica and Lydia not-so-subtly teaming up to win, and a crying Jackson, the parents took the kids home. In the end, it was just Erica, Lydia and Isaac who hasn't been picked up yet.

Derek had to practically drag Lydia out, especially when she started yelling that she didn't want to leave her best friend to make other friends. When Derek apologized for his daughter for the third time, Stiles told him to stop it and get her home already.

\-- --

When Stiles opens the door, Lydia gets in as if she was home, without even greeting him, and runs up the stairs to get to Erica's room. He can't help but wonder if having two 8 year old girls in his house is a good idea after all. Especially knowing Erica and Lydia. Derek is right behind, coming to the door glancing past Stiles to see that his daughter is already out of his sight.

"I'm sorry for my daughter. I swear she's not like this all the time."

"It's no big deal" he answers. "Wanna come in for a while?"

Derek looks back to his car as if deciding what to do. Eventually, he nods and follows Stiles in. Stiles counts this as a win, when Derek usually just leaves, as if avoiding Stiles at all costs.

"Would you like a coffee? I'm brewing some right now."

"Coffee would be nice" Derek says.

They make small talk while drinking freshly brewed coffee and watching a X-men movie that had Stiles' attention divided. They've known each other for a couple of years but somehow it still feels as if Derek doesn't like spending time with him at all. Stiles attention wanders between the TV and his thoughts about Derek, so when the man asks about Erica's mother he doesn't realize he's being quiet a little too long until Derek is apologizing and standing up.

"Wait, what? Where are you going?"

"Hmm... anywhere that I'm not embarrassing myself would be great."

"What do you mean embarrassing yourself?" Stiles inquired, pretty sure that he missed on a huge part of the conversation while Logan fought Lady Deathstrike. What? It wasn't really Derek's fault, he just liked Wolverine a lot.

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have asked-"

"What did you exactly ask that should be so embarrassing? I'm sorry but my attention span is short and Wolverine was just fighting Lady Deathstrike, you couldn't expect me to be 100% in our conversation."

Derek is looking at him with both of his eyebrows raised, and his mouth slightly open, as if he can't believe Stiles.

"Derek, come on. Sit down and ask all the boring questions you want. I'll just pause this thing." He reaches for the remote and pauses the movie. Thinking it better, he turns it off. He looks up to Derek who is just watching him go through the motions in silent. Stiles pats the sofa next to him, inviting Derek to join him. After a few hesitant seconds, he complied.

"I- I wanted to know about Erica's mother, but you really don't have to answer that" Derek mentions.

"Nah, it's ok. I can't believe you never asked before. It’s a beautiful thing, actually. I had a very dear friend a long time ago who I really,  _really_  liked. We got apart when I went to college but I kept her in my mind, you know. I used to send her stupid videos of college, and she would give me the updates of what was going on around here. When I came back she was dating this douchebag who wasn't good to her, but they had been together for some time so she thought it was just a phase and he'd eventually give up.

"There's more to that story, but it's not mine to tell. The important thing is, one day she comes to my place crying that she's pregnant and doesn't know what to do because her boyfriend is not gonna like it. So naturally I offered her to stay here, but she wouldn't since the guy could come for her. We left to Santa Barbara until the baby was born. We had talked a lot about what she was gonna do, her not wanting to give up the baby altogether, so she gave her to me and I adopted her. Once a month I'll fill her in Erica's life. She lives in Oregon now, without Mr. Douchepants though."

Derek sits in complete silence, looking as if this was a familiar story, one that he couldn’t place.

"What was your friend's name?" he asks, frowning in confusion.

"Why?"

"It's just- It sounds familiar, that's all."

"Malia. Her name is Malia."

Derek goes several shades paler at this and Stiles is worrying about where the man knows her from and then it hits him. Malia Hale, Derek Hale. Fuck. Is this Malia's brother? She never told him she had a brother. _Maybe he had no idea about Erica and I just fucked it up and they will try to take Erica from me_.  _Oh my god_ , he thinks,  _why didn't I think of this before sharing my daughter's story to a guy that I barely know?_

"She's your sister, isn't she?" Stiles asks suddenly. "In my defense, she never told me she had more family. As far as I knew she had a tense relationship with her father, but no siblings or anything."

At this, Derek reacts "My sister? No, no, no. Malia is my cousin. My older sister and I have been looking for her for years. She just disappeared on us."

"Maybe she had a reason to do it" Stiles defended her. "Maybe-"

"Stiles, you don't get it. We thought her father made her disappear, not that she had been in Beacon Hills all the time."

"Hey, that's not what I said. She's gone. I only talk to her by the phone. She's doing fine as far as I know. She's got a nice life away from Beacon Hills and all the bad things it means to her. She doesn’t need to come back”

Derek takes a deep breath and sits straight. “Okay, I get it. You don’t trust me with this, but I just need to know she’s alright. It really messed our family when she just took off. She’s been away from us since she was thirteen, and we lost all contact with her a little after she turned eighteen.” Stiles remembers the first time he saw Malia, they were both seventeen, and Malia seemed so lost, as if she hadn’t been walking in two feet for a long, long time. “I know that Cora stopped thinking about her as alive a long time ago.” Derek continues, looking directly at Stiles’ eyes “We just want to take care of her, that’s all.”

But Stiles wasn’t so convinced. Not when they could snatch his baby from him. So he tells Derek that he’ll talk to Malia first, that he’s her friend and doesn’t want to betray her trust more than he’s already done, and _then_ he’ll tell Derek if it’s okay to get in contact.

That afternoon, they watch Captain America at Derek’s request. They chat about Steve’s transformation, and how good was Chris Evans as Captain America. Derek doesn’t mention Malia and Stiles is immensely grateful for it. When dinner time arrives, and Stiles invites him to stay a little longer, they end up making dinner together as they listen to the music coming from Erica’s and Lydia’s room.

During dinner, Stiles caught Derek looking in his direction two times. He wonders what the man is thinking about but lets it go when Erica tries to convince her how awesome she would look with one or two shades of lighter hair.

\-- --

Roughly a month later, Stiles is finishing his shift at the station, when someone enters his office. He looks up to find Derek standing at the entrance.

“Hmm… Derek what are you doing here? Is Lydia ok?” he questions.

“Yeah, she’s fine. I just- I’ve been thinking about the other day and came to the conclusion that you don’t have to tell me anything if you don’t want to. Still, I came to apologize for that day. I-“

Stiles sighs and shakes his head, not believing Derek. They haven’t exchanged more words than necessary during this whole time but Stiles didn’t think that an apology required him to go his workplace.

“It’s ok, Derek. I’m not mad. In fact, I’ve got some news for you.”

Derek visibly lights up when he hears those words. His eyes filled with hope and a little of something else he can’t define. Stiles scribbles a few numbers on a post-it from memory, he’d be damned if he ever forgets Malia’s contact info, and gives it to the man.

“I had my monthly chat with Malia last week and she told me that it was ok to give you this. So, there you go. Now you and your family can contact her.” He pauses for a few seconds, pondering on how to get the next words out. “Though she made me swear that I’ll ask you not to tell her father. She wouldn’t say why, but she practically begged that her father stayed out of her life, so I trust you to keep that man away from my friend.”

Derek glances at the piece of paper in his hand and smiles tentatively. It’s a small, but warm smile that illuminates his eyes, and makes him look ten times more attractive than he already is. Stiles wonders what it would be like to see that smile every day. He thinks he’d probably die of joy overload, or something.

Derek doesn’t hang out for too long after that, but he thanks Stiles numerous times before heading out, phone already in his hand.

 -- --

Derek comes to visit him again next Tuesday. He brings lunch as thanks from his family. Stiles keeps telling him that there’s nothing to thank him from, that they should know about her, that he’s glad that Malia is getting her family back. He doesn’t mention what would happen if Malia wants Erica back because he doesn’t think he could handle it.

They talk about Derek’s work and his favorite movies. Stiles is impressed but pleased to hear that he’s a big Lord of the Rings nerd. And when Derek gets Stiles’ constant Star Wars references, he knows that Derek is worming the way into his heart.

\-- --

A few weeks later, Stiles gets home to find his daughter crying in front of the TV.

“Erica what’s wrong?”

“Why did you never tell me that my mother was alive?” he sobs.

Stiles freezes in his spot but looks around the living room, making sure that Malia isn’t there to take his baby away.

“What do you mean, Erica? I never told you she was dead” he told her while he sits down in the sofa, not too close as if not to scare her.

“You told me she lived away, that’s what you tell children when someone dies” she remarked.

“Care to tell me what happened?”

Erica starts telling him about how Lydia has discovered that they were cousins because her father and Erica’s mother were cousins. Erica told Lydia that it wasn’t possible unless Lydia had a dead aunt that she never told her about. And that’s when Lydia mentioned that her dad had been talking with Erica's mom on the phone, that she was very much alive, and that they were talking about Erica.

Stiles’ blood turns cold at that. _Does that mean they’re gonna take Erica away from me?,_ he wonders _, oh my god they_ are _going to take Erica away from me._ Stiles wants to take his daughter and hide her away until no one is looking for them, in a place they can live happy lives where he finds a nice, understanding wife or husband, and give Erica the brother he’s always been longing for.

He comes back to the conversation when his daughter is shaking her small, pale hands in front of his eyes. “Dad, are you even listening?”

“Of course I am, baby.”

“Then answer me. Can I see her? Can I see my mother?”

Stiles had told Erica that she was adopted before she even got into kindergarten. By that time, she had asked why it was so important who her mother was when she had him and the most amazing grandparents in the world. He had smiled, and then read a book to her. She had never asked again, but he could understand her curiosity, in fact he shared it. Stiles had promised himself that he wouldn’t keep Erica from her mother but given the circumstances he wasn’t exactly happy about it.

He explained Erica what his deal with Malia involved, promising to ask her next time she called.

Later that night, they watched The Avengers as they ate lasagna, Erica cuddled next to him in a bundle of blankets, her face partially peeking from under the covers, and Stiles allowed himself to feel safe in the knowledge that Erica was his and no one else’s.

\-- --

Stiles had never dialed Derek’s number if he wasn’t calling him to ask him if Lydia could stay the night, or if it would be okay that he took her to the mall with Erica, and that one time he had to called her because Lydia and Erica had gone through a stylist phase and Lydia had cut Erica’s hair in a bob haircut. Erica wasn’t pleased when she couldn’t cut Lydia’s hair too, and everything evolved in an ugly kicking-and-scratching-and-screaming fight.

Therefore when Stiles dialed him around midnight with both of their daughters sleeping was not only awkward, but slightly out of place. Not that Stiles would ever admit such thing.

“Hello?” Stiles did not have to swallow a lump in his throat at hearing Derek’s sleep-filled, husky voice over the phone. He totally didn’t.

“Um, Derek? It’s Stiles.” When nothing but silence follows his greeting, he asks “Derek?”

“Do you have any idea what time it is? Some people have to work in the morning, you know. These people would appreciate it if they got at least six hours of sleep.”

“Yeah, I know. I’m sorry for the time but I needed to talk to you at a time your daughter wouldn’t eavesdrop.”

“What?” Stiles hears Derek walk somewhere, when he hears a door closing, he guesses that he’s trying to give them a little more privacy. “Now what do you mean at a time my daughter won’t eavesdrop? What happened?”

Stiles sighs and looks up the ceiling, praying that this doesn’t come out in a wrong way.

“It’s just that- Lydia told Erica about Malia. Apparently she overheard a conversation you had with Malia about my daughter and now Erica wants to see her.”

Derek stays quiet for a moment before responding “I’m sorry, Stiles.”

Stiles doesn’t realize he’s sobbing until he hears those words. He feels lost, alone in the knowledge that once Malia meets Erica, she will do everything in her power to get her back. He knows that reverse adoption is not always easy or a short process, but Stiles feels that if Malia wants it bad enough she will do it. Besides, Erica will want to be with her mother. There’s no way that she will choose him over her biological mother who can be much better for her than he is, she’s _Erica’s real mother,_ for fuck’s sake. No one would be better at taking care of Erica than her.

“Stiles, come on. Tell me what’s going on.” Derek’s worried voice calls from the other side of the line.

Stiles tries and fails to get words out of his mouth, he just continues to cry over the phone, knowing that it doesn’t solve anything, but just letting it out of his system.

Nearly five minutes and a lot of babbling later, Stiles is calm enough to tell Derek about all of his insecurities regarding Erica and Malia, and Derek is patient enough to listen to him. When he stops, Derek takes a deep breath and speaks.

“Now, listen to me Stiles and listen carefully because I’ll only say this once. _No one_ is going to take Erica from you. Not now, not ever. You’re her _father_ , the only father that she knows and the only one she loves. Erica is not going to abandon you if she meets her biological mother ok? And no one is more fit to take care of her than the person that’s been doing it for the last eight years, you get it?”

Stiles knows in some rational part of his brain that Derek is right, yet he can’t believe it so he doesn’t reply.

“ _Stiles_ ”, Derek hissed.

Stiles smiled a little at this, letting his mind wander to Derek hissing his name in other situations. _No, no, no ._ No _. That’s inappropriate_ , he chastised himself.

“Okay” he acknowledged in the end.

“Okay?” Derek doubted at the other side of the line.

“Yeah, I’m gonna be just fine, Derek. Thanks for listening to me.”

“I’ll talk to Lydia about eavesdropping on people’s conversations tomorrow morning though.”

“Okay. ‘Night, Derek.”

“Goodnight, Stiles.”

He doesn’t want to admit how good it had felt talking to Derek, not when he is Malia’s _cousin_ and could switch sides whenever he felt like to. Stiles had to remind himself that there weren’t any sides to take, that Erica was _his_ daughter and no one was going to take her away from him.

Stiles will never admit that that night he dreamed of Derek talking to him until dawn breaks, and woke up wishing that it had happened last night.

\-- --

He puts off calling Malia for almost two weeks, but does it anyway. She seems content enough, so Stiles thinks it’s better he tells her what’s going on now.

“Malia, I have something that I need to ask you.”

“Ok-ay” she drags the words longer than necessary, expecting Stiles to continue. And since Stiles was taught that he had to rip off the bandage at once, he blurted out “Erica found out about you and wants to meet you.”

A moment later, the line is dead.

\-- --

Telling Erica that Malia wasn’t picking up the phone wasn’t a good idea. She got sick and skipped school two days, due to anxiety alone. He asked Melissa to babysit her the first day, but the second day he called in sick and stayed with her, expecting that no one bothered them during the day.

That’s why he winced when the doorbell rang. He paused the movie, much to Erica’s annoyance and went to get the door.

To say he was surprised to see Derek at his doorstep was an underestimation.

“Derek?” said Stiles, as eloquent as ever.

“Um, hi.” A pause. “Lydia told me that Erica missed school and we just wanted to see how you were doing.”

At that, Stiles notices that Lydia is hiding behind Derek, trying to make herself smaller.

“Come in” he invites. When they come in, Lydia isn’t taking off to see Erica, but stays next to her dad.

“Can I see Erica?” she asks.

“Yeah, of course” after a second, he calls “Erica! Lydia’s here!”

Lydia hurries to the living room, avoiding his gaze. Stiles frowns confused. When Derek realized what happened, he explains “Lydia thinks it’s her fault that Erica is sick, that if she hadn’t told her about Malia, Erica would be alright.”

Stiles smiles at that, not realizing how little he had smiled since Malia refused to pick up the damn phone. He was about to fill a missing person report just so the police could get her and Stiles got a chance to speak to her.

Stiles looks over to the sofa where Erica and Lydia are talking I hushed whispers and decides that it’s a good time as any to have a coffee and just forget the world for a while.

Derek follows him and accepts the coffee that Stiles offers. They share a few stories about their girls being sick, until they settle in pleasant silence only disturbed by the girls talking in the other room.

Derek and Lydia stay for dinner again. This time, Stiles catches Derek looking a grand total of three times. He totally didn’t feel butterflies in his stomach at that.

He didn’t dream of Derek looking at him with heavy eyes lying next to him either.

\-- --

Next time Derek and Stiles see each other is at a school recital two weeks later. Erica had been nagging Stiles to teach him to play guitar so she could participate. Stiles had complied but made her promise that next time she wanted to play an instrument she would let him know so she could take proper classes that weren’t at the police station in the middle of his job.

When Stiles spotted a very uncomfortable Derek in the entrance of the auditorium, he waved at him until the man saw him. He was just slightly happy to see that Derek smiled back, and not one of his charming, polite smiles, but a full on grin that absolutely didn’t make Stiles’ heart skip a beat. It didn’t.

Apparently Lydia had wanted to put her dance lessons to good use and was gonna be part of not one, but two performances tonight. Derek looked visibly elated by his daughter’s performance. Not for the first time, Stiles wished he could see that dumb smile more often than he did.

Erica came up on the stage and played a song that he had written for Malia back when he was seventeen and a lovesick fool. He had gotten over Malia, but that didn’t mean that he hadn’t played those songs to his daughter when she was little, telling her all he could about a mother that had wanted her so bad, who hadn’t been at her best, and still did what she could to protect her.

When Stiles felt a hand above his, he looked over to find Derek trying to give him some comfort. Stiles turned his hand so his palm was facing Derek’s and entwined their fingers. How had Derek known he was having a silent meltdown was beyond him, but he took all the comfort he could get.

That night, they take the girls for ice cream and when Derek catches him looking in his direction, he smiles.

Stiles dreamed of taking the girls for ice cream while holding Derek’s hand. He didn’t try to deny it when he woke up.

\-- --

Malia calls him exactly one month after she hung up on him.

“Stiles.”

“Yeah?”

“I will meet Erica, but- I need you to tell her that I’m not coming back, that this isn’t a magical reunion to get a perfect family. I can’t do that.”

Intense relief coursed through his veins knowing that Malia wasn’t coming to get his little girl. Stiles would feel guilty about it later, but right now he only wanted to believe that his daughter would stay with him no matter what.

“And Stiles?”

“Yeah?”

“Can you please tell Derek that I’m gonna be in town? Maybe I can see him before I leave.”

Stiles smiles and agrees.

\-- --

Malia gets to town three days later. Stiles is not the first stop in her brief visit though. She went to the cemetery to put flowers in her mother’s grave, Malia told Stiles when she arrived to the station. They hugged as if they were long lost siblings, and for the first time in years he feels as if she’s really happy. They might talk to each other once a month but on the phone he can’t ever know if she’s really okay or if she’s pretending for his sake. However, she looks healthy, bright, content, even if a little tense for the upcoming meeting.

And somehow he _knows_ that Malia has created her own world in Oregon, and that she won’t change it bringing an eight year old girl with her. He’s selfish enough to feel slightly relieved at that, but still worries about Erica’s reaction.

Stiles drives her to the house and tells her that he’ll be picking up Erica by himself so she’s somewhat prepared to see her. Malia assures him that it’s okay, that she’ll use that time to think what she’ll say, and most importantly to get accustomed to the idea that she’ll be seeing her family in a short time.

Erica is just coming out of the school, arm entwined with Isaac, and Lydia right behind sulking. When Erica sees him, she waves and asks if Isaac can come home because his dad hasn’t been home since yesterday and she doesn’t want to leave the kid alone.

“Erica, I’m sorry but we’ve got visitors today. Can’t Isaac stay with Lydia?”

At this, Lydia says “No, because he’s stealing _my_ best friend.”

“I thought we went over this already, Lydia. Sharing is caring” came a voice from behind. Stiles’ heart beats a little faster at this. “Hi, Stiles” Derek adds.

Stiles feels his throat go dry and swallows twice in a poor attempt to speak. He ends up nodding in acknowledgement.

Erica looks puzzled, but lets go of Isaac and walk towards their car. Stiles follows her, but a hand in his arm stops him. He turns around to see Derek with a worried expression in his face.

“Is she in town?” he asks. Stiles nods once and looks past Derek, towards Lydia and Isaac, who seem to be pointedly ignoring each other.

“Can you take Isaac to the station? Erica mentioned that his dad didn’t get home last night. Social services will be on him in a few hours.” Derek agrees to Stiles’ petition and lets him go. Just a few seconds later, Isaac and Lydia are settling in the back of Derek’s car.

Stiles keeps the whole drive home silent. When they arrived home, Erica didn’t get out of the car.

“She’s there isn’t she? My mother?” she asks.

“Yes, Malia is there,” Stiles replies.

“Will you be with me?”

“Do you want me to be there?” At his daughter’s nod, he adds “It’s okay, Erica. If you don’t want to get in, we’ll turn back and go pick up Isaac as you wanted.”

Erica opens the door from her side and Stiles follows her. Before he opens the door, Erica hugs him tightly. “I love you, Dad. Don’t forget that.”

Stiles hugs her back, feeling as though this might be one of the last times he gets to be with her dad.

When they come in, Malia is lying on the sofa with a book in her hands, brow furrowed in concentration, head tilted to the side, as if trying to picture what’s happening and failing miserably.

Stiles clears his throat and Malia sits up and freezes.

“Malia, this is my daughter Erica.” Malia’s expression clouds for a second, not knowing how to react, but then she looks visibly awed.

“Hi, Erica.”

The little girl walks closer to Malia and studies her, probably trying to see herself in the adult in front of her. She seems to take in the dark tee, the shorts and the boots and nods, as if approving her style.

“I’m gonna take a wild guess and say that my father was the one with the blonde curly hair?” Erica blurts out. Stiles is shocked, but soon his shock gives place to laughter as he realizes what his little girl said. “Damn, I thought you’d show me how to do my hair in something that wasn’t braids or a pigtail.”

“Language” Stiles warned.

Malia had an amused smile playing in her lips. “She’s so your daughter.”

Stiles stands a little bit straighter, beaming with pride. Of course Erica is his daughter. It’s in that moment that he realizes that Malia meeting Erica had been a good thing. _Maybe they’ll get along and become friends, but my baby is staying with me_ , he thinks.

Later that day, Stiles cooks dinner for them. He can hear Malia telling Erica about her travels around the country back when she was younger. She doesn’t mention to the little girl that she had run away from home at thirteen, and had spent four years wandering around the country, lost to the world. Still, Malia speaks about the Great Lakes, about Manhattan, about Seattle and it feels right.

Erica asks Malia about her home, and Malia stays silent for a few seconds, but in the end she says “I live in Gresham, Oregon. Not so far away from the woods. You’d probably hate it”

“It’s not like I was planning on going, anyway.” Stiles breathes a little easier after that.

Not too long after that, he gets a message from Derek asking if it’s okay to pick up Malia. He replies with a short ‘ _after dinner’_. Derek’s reply comes barely a few seconds later.

‘ _Is 7:30 ok?_ ’

Stiles glances at the living room, at the two girls there and thinks that maybe Malia can come over tomorrow. Or they can talk about visiting Erica regularly if she wants. Perhaps they will end up as friends, but for now, he knows that Erica will be okay to have some time to reflect on the afternoon.

‘ _7:30 is fine’_

\-- --

Their dinner goes better than any of them could’ve expected. Erica chats about her grades, about her friends (Isaac is mentioned three times. Stiles studies his daughter, trying to decide if she’s having a crush or not. He decides to examine that later), and spends a long time complaining about homework. Later, they moved to the living room and talked about Malia’s backyard and how it extended to the woods.

Around 7:40 the doorbell rang and Stiles got up, leaving a Malia and Erica alone. Malia tensed and looked over to the door but tried to keep her focus on the little girl in front of her. Stiles didn’t comment on it and opened the door to find Derek looking more nervous than he ever thought he’d see the man.

“Wanna come in?” Derek nods but doesn’t get past the entrance. At this, Stiles gets out and closes the door behind him. He berates himself when he remembers that he left the keys inside.

When Derek doesn’t make a move, Stiles sits on the front step and reaches a hand to him, pulling him down. The older man goes through the motions slowly, almost fearing that something could come out of the house and attack him.

They sit in silence for a couple of minutes, Derek’s eyes lost in the distance; Stiles still holding Derek’s hand from when he grabbed it, running his fingers along the length of Derek’s. Stiles realizes what he’s doing and lets Derek’s hand go, knowing that you don’t randomly grab your friend’s hand. Maybe you do, but Derek and Stiles aren’t _that_ close.

Derek frowns at the loss of contact, still looking a bit spacey.

“Malia knows that it’s you. She’s been probably counting down the seconds until you got here” Stiles mentions.

“How did things go?” he asks.

“Well enough that they don’t hate each other. Not well enough for Erica to drop everything and leave with her to live in the woods.”

When Derek smiles, that dumb smile that turns his insides into goo, Stiles counts it as a win.

“Does Malia look happy? When she talks about her life?” Derek mumbles.

Stiles thinks that’s a good question. He would’ve said yes before, back when he knew Malia well. But now? Now he doesn’t know. So instead of pondering about Malia and her life, Stiles just stares at Derek, absorbing every detail at the opportunity to gaze him closely. His eyes following the line of his nose, the small wrinkles around his eyes, the distinct stubble that covers his cheeks and chin. He licks his lips unconsciously. He blushes when Derek looks at him and catches him staring, eyes directed at his mouth. Stiles scolds himself for the thoughts that cross his mind when Derek needs reassurance and looks away.

In the end, he answers “I don’t know, Derek. She looked happy today, but this is not the Malia I knew eight years ago.”

Derek nods and stands up, extending his hand at Stiles who doesn’t think twice before taking it. Later, he would tell himself that he didn’t caressed Derek’s hand with his thumb, that he didn’t hold his hand longer than necessary, that he didn’t want to kiss him.

Stiles was too old to have a crush.

\-- --

Malia stood up in front of Derek for a long time before running up to hug him. Stiles left them to their reencounter and went to see his daughter, who was sprawled on the sofa not really paying attention to the TV.

“I like her” she mutters. “We could be friends some day.”

And if Stiles shed a tear at hearing this, no one has to know.

He just raises his daughter from the couch and hugs her tightly.

Malia enters the room not little after that and, smiling fondly at the scene, announces that she’s picking up her stuff. Erica doesn’t ask when she’s coming back and Malia makes no promises either.

Stiles leaves the girls alone to say goodbye, finding Derek at the entrance. The guy looks wrecked, as if his world shook to its core in the last few minutes. He supposes that it may have happened.

He puts a hand in his shoulder, Stiles putting all the comfort that he can in it. When Derek risks a glance at him he sees confusion, sadness and relief, fighting to take over his features.

When the silence gets too much for Stiles, he asks “How come you didn’t bring your bossy little girl?” Derek shakes his head, as though he couldn’t understand something or _someone_. Stiles wishes that Derek spared a thought for him, but discards that idea as soon as it pops up.

“She’s home with Laura and Cora. I’m pretty sure that one of them, probably Laura, will start telling Lydia embarrassing stories about my childhood, which my daughter will save away for later blackmailing. I swear I don’t know where she got it from.”

Stiles stifles a laugh at the notion of embarrassing stories about Derek. Someone clears their throat behind them. Stiles just notices that the door is open and Malia is standing there. He seriously needs to be more aware of his surroundings. His friend arches a knowing eyebrow at him. He looks away from her trying to hide his blush.

Malia makes her way around them and walks to Derek’s car. “I can’t believe you drive a soccer-mom car, Derek!” She yells on her way.

Derek just shakes his head again and chuckles. Derek actually chuckled. Stiles thinks he might’ve died and gone to a heaven where he hears that every day for the rest of eternity. _I’m too old to have a crush,_ he thinks _. I’m too old to have a crush. Too old to have a- fuck._

“Thank you” he hears Derek say. “For everything.”

That night Stiles dreamed of Derek laughing at his jokes, as they shared breakfast with a couple of very loud little girls.

And if he woke up longing for it, no one has to know.

\-- --

Two days later, the police finds Isaac’s dad dead in an alleyway. Social services took Isaac to a group home the day his father disappeared, after noting that Isaac had various bruises and cuts that he couldn’t explain. Stiles didn’t want the kid to stay in a group home, so when Scott told him that he and Allison wanted to adopt, he may or may not have jumped at the opportunity of leaving Isaac in a home where he would be loved and cherished.

“Scott, how do you feel about the idea of being a foster dad?” He asked one day as they had lunch together.

“Um, I don’t know? I mean, it would mean that eventually we’d have to let the kid go because he’d be adopted, right?” At Stiles’ nod, he continues “yeah, well, maybe I’ll want to keep the child and be their dad. I don’t want to get used to the idea of having a baby and then-“

Scott trails off, Stiles understanding that he was talking about Allison’s miscarriages. Christ, it made him so mad that two amazing people like Scott and Allison couldn’t have the beautiful babies they could make together. It made him wish that kids like Isaac had been given to them instead to an abusive, alcoholic asshole.

“You know, there’s this kid…” and Stiles tell him about Isaac, about all the little things he had learned thanks to Erica: about his love for lacrosse, about how much he loves animals, about his smile when they invite him to pajama parties, about how he looks like a little puppy just like Scott.

Scott looked as if Stiles had given him the sun and the stars. And when he asked what he had to do to apply for foster care, Stiles knew that the moment his brother and Allison met Isaac, it would be for life.

\-- --

That same day, Derek calls Stiles asking if Erica could spend the night. As usual, he wasn’t exactly on board with the idea, but he knew that Erica couldn’t be locked in her room forever in case she had a seizure. So Stiles agrees to Derek picking Erica up from school and bringing her home afterwards for her to pack an overnight bag and leave again.

He has to work until ten anyway, so it’s good that Erica will be with a friend and not getting spoiled with Melissa and his Dad. Not that she won’t be spoiled by Derek’s sisters and mother, but still.

Stiles gets home around eleven, ready to go to bed and sleep until he has to face the world the next day. However, he didn’t expect a call from a panicked Derek at 1 am.

“Stiles, you need to come right now” the man said as a greeting.

“Why, hello to you too, Derek” he looks over to the nightstand to see that’s barely past 1.  “It’s 1 am what are-“

“Erica just had a seizure. You need to come.”

Stiles bolts upright and gets out of bed faster than he thought he could. It doesn’t take him long to put on shoes and grab his phone from where he dropped it. “How is she?” he asks as he makes a run for the door, grabbing his keys on the way.

“She looks tired as hell. She seems very confused too. She’s with me. Do you wanna talk to her?”

“Please”, Stiles breathes. He puts his phone on speaker, sets it on the dashboard and gets out of the driveway.

“Dad?” he hears a moment later.

“Thank god, Erica. How are you?”

“I feel like shit” she whispered. It's a sign of his concern that he doesn't correct his language as he normally would.

“I’m on my way ok? I’ll be there as soon as I can” And he’s glad that he can drive the cruise with the siren and the lights on, speeding his way out of town and into the preserve where the Hales live.

A few minutes and about 15 red lights later, he parks in the driveway and a concerned Cora opens the door.

“Where?” he asks. Cora gestures him to follow her upstairs. On his way up, he notices Laura in the living room out of the corner of his eye. Standing outside one of the many doors in the second floor, Derek awaits with a look of sheer terror and Stiles’ heart almost stops completely in panic, not knowing how his little baby is.

He gets in the room and Erica nearly jumps out of the bed she’s sitting in, but Stiles gets to her first. He takes in the dark circles under her eyes, her sickly pallor, sweat clinging to her skin making it clammy and cold. Stiles touches her face gently and searches for injuries in her face and head.

“Did you bite your tongue?” he questions. At her barely noticeable shake, he continues “did you throw up?” Another shake. “Can you remember what were you doing before?”

“Lydia and I were watching _The Notebook_ , we were at the moment Noah sends the first letter, you know when right?” At his nod, she adds “that’s the last thing I remember, then everything gets blurry.”

Stiles turns to Derek. “Do you know how long it was?”

“Lydia says she called for me the moment Erica started convulsing, so I’d say a minute, maybe.” He pauses “Is that important? Should I have timed it?” Derek’s worried tone makes Stiles weirdly fuzzy inside.

“It would have been ideal, but it’s ok. They usually last about a minute.”

“Should we take Erica to the ER?” he asks next.

“I might call Melissa to check on her, but since she’s not hurt and she’s already on medication, there’s no much the doctors can do for her but help her recover. We’ll have to stay on alert if it happens again, then we’re taking her to the ER” Stiles turns to his daughter, brow furrowed in concern. “Do you wanna go home now or finish the movie first?”

Erica’s little smile makes him smile in return.

“Movie.”

Stiles never doubted the answer. Somehow, _The Notebook_ was among Erica’s favorites, above _Dark Knight Rises_ but below any _Avengers_ movie.

Not long after that, Lydia makes it back to the room and sits next to Erica offering juice. The blonde girl searches for Stiles’ approval, knowing that he would know when it’s safe to drink again. The kids’ attention turns to the movie and Stiles hovers near the door, wanting to get out and take a deep breath but not wanting to leave Erica out of his sight.

Derek seems to realize this and calls his sisters up. When they sit in the room with the girls, he grabs his arm and pulls him outside of the house.

As soon as they step outside, Stiles takes a mouthful of cold air trying to calm down. When instead of making him feel at ease, his breaths get more shallow and short, not enough air getting in his lungs. His chest feels tight and heavy, the beating of his heart filling his ears. He tries to force himself to calm down, to _get a fucking grip, Stilinski_ , but his vision shakes around the edges and he wonders if or the first time he confused a panic attack with a heart attack and he’s actually going to die.

It sure feels like that to him, especially when he can’t get a word out of his mouth, the pain in his chest intensifying, his mind going frantic over Erica being left alone, without anyone to take proper care of her. He can faintly hear someone anxiously calling his name.

“Stiles, damn it, look at me!”

Stiles looks up, eyes meeting Derek’s worried gaze.

“Come one, breathe with me. One, two, three, out. Stiles!”

He tries to focus his attention on Derek’s voice, following the breathing pattern he’s setting for him. _One, two, three, out. Two, three, hold. Three, four, five, out. Four, five, hold_.

It goes on for so long that Stiles begins to wonder if life could pass them by while he tries to calm down.

About then, he realizes he’s holding Derek’s hand tightly, foreheads pressed together, breathing the same air. Stiles opens his eyes not knowing when he closed them, to find Derek so close that he can nearly feel the other man’s growing beard in his face. Stiles is so concentrated on how intimate it feels, that he doesn’t realized he’s moved back slightly and is pointedly staring at Derek.

And Derek is staring back. At Stiles’ mouth, that’s slightly open.

Feeling self-conscious and biting back the urge to lean down and kiss him, he runs his tongue over his bottom lip. He hears Derek’s sharp intake of breath and watches his Adam’s apple bobble up and down as he swallows.

Stiles can’t help but wonder if Derek’s actions were a reaction to him. Damn, he’s wishing they are. Wishing he could see Derek’s face this close every day, feel Derek’s breath brushing his cheek, Derek’s hand holding his tightly as they make their way through the park watching their little girls.

Shaking his head out of his reverie, he lets go of Derek to run a clammy hand over his hair, nervously.

“I- I’m sorry I freaked out on you like that.”

Derek looks visibly confused, as if Stiles had just broke _something_. However, Stiles won’t analyze the shit out of every one of Derek’s actions in hope that any of them could mean a thing. It was childish and dumb and seriously? He’s in his early thirties ok? He’s too old to have a crush.

Maybe if he repeats it enough times, he’ll start to actually believe it. Fake it ‘til you make it, right?

He comes to when Derek says “It’s ok, Stiles. I would lose my shit too if any harm came to Lydia. Or Erica for that matter, I’m pretty sure I lost my shit in there too. I was about ready to take her to the ER even before calling you.” Stiles’ heart seems to double in size for every new inch to be filled with warm, fuzzy feelings towards Derek. Shit.

When Stiles doesn’t contribute to the conversation, Derek fills the silence telling him that he’d only seen Cora had a fit once when they were in a car accident and he was 20. Apparently, Cora almost died twice that night.

Then he talks about baseball and his time in little league, about the remodelations in his apartment, about Lydia’s first words. If a panic attack was everything that took to get Derek so talkative, he’d suffer though another just to hear him chatter about his life, his family and his hobbies.

It’s a novelty that Stiles is not the one babbling incessantly about the most random topics, so Stiles barely registers as they drift into another topic: Lydia’s next birthday in a little over two months.

“I’ve been meaning to take her to Paris. She’s mentioned a few times that she really wants to go there and I don’t know, maybe I just want an excuse to get out of the country for a while.”

Stiles frowns at this. He doesn’t like the idea of Derek going anywhere he can’t follow. Not in a creepy way, he just doesn’t want European women or men hitting on Derek. What if he falls in love with a French guy and decides to stay there forever, completely out of his reach, where Stiles could never hold his hand after a panic attack again? What if he decides he’s got a thing for French girls moaning his name and- No, no, no, he’s not going to think about Derek having sex with a French girl. It makes him angry to even think about French people giving Derek a sex stare.

“Stiles?” the guy is giving him an amused look, as if he’s been trying to get his attention a couple of times.

“Hmmm?”

“I asked you if you’d be opposed to the idea of coming to Paris with us.”

What?

“What?” he says aloud.

Derek shakes his head in a small frustration gesture.

“I was saying that neither Lydia nor Erica will want to be very content being split up during the summer, especially when they’ve spent their last 3 birthdays together. Maybe we could all go to Paris?”

When Stiles just gapes at his for the longest time, Derek looks unsure, as if he overstepped his boundaries and he wants to take what he just said back to make everything between them ok again.

“Derek, I’m a deputy of the _Beacon Hills_ police department not an architect like you. I barely make 40 thousand a year and I have an epileptic daughter who needs constant medical attention and tests. I don’t have enough money for us to go to Paris, so thanks but we can’t.”

Derek doesn’t skip a beat before replying “I’m _inviting_ you.”

When Stiles realizes what Derek is implying, he thinks his jaw won’t be the same after this conversation. It might never close completely again and it would be entirely Derek’s fault.

“You’re joking right?” When Derek doesn’t start laughing, he blurts out “ _Oh my god_ you’re not joking, are you?”

Derek frowns, uncertainty clouding his features, visibly confused. 

“Derek, I can’t let you take us on vacation to Paris. It doesn’t make any sense.”

“But I want you to go with us. I’m pretty sure Erica and Lydia would be thrilled.”

“No, Derek I can’t. Thanks, but no thanks.”

The guy looked about ready to physically fight him on this, but he falls silent next to Stiles.

After what seems like an eternity of painfully awkward silence, Derek says “We should go back inside.” Stiles nods and takes Derek’s offered hand.

He doesn’t let it go until they get to the stairs.

\-- --

When they get back to Lydia’s room, they find Erica and Lydia sound asleep on Lydia’s bed, Cora sitting in the floor at the end of the bed, crying silently at the movie that hasn’t finished yet. Laura looks bored out of her mind and visibly lights up when they enter the room.

“Great, you’re back. I’m out. Long day tomorrow” Laura remarks as Cora hurriedly wipes her tears and pretends to be relieved too.

“Yeah, I’m- I’m going to sleep too. It’s not as if the movie was any good anyway” Cora adds.

They both leave the room shortly after that.

“Do you mind if I crash here for the night? I don’t know how much of a good idea is moving Erica right now” Stiles asks.

“It’s ok, you can crash on the couch in the living room.”

“I’d prefer to stay here to keep an eye on her.”

“Oh” Derek pauses for a second. “Then I'll brew some fresh coffee and I'll join you… If you’re ok with it of course.”

Stiles smiles and responds, “It’d be a pleasure.”

\-- --

They use their time wisely and re-watch the last three episodes of Game of Thrones. Before the third is on the second half, he can feel Derek leaning on him. When he glances at him, the man is sound asleep. Naturally, Stiles forgets about the TV show and shifts so Derek is half on top of him, using him as a pillow. The man doesn’t even stir. Stiles puts his left arm over Derek’s shoulders, reaching for the blanket and pulling it up. He doesn’t move his arm afterwards.

Stiles sits there just staring into space, mindlessly running his hand over Derek’s hair. He only notices he’s been doing it when Derek nuzzles the side of his neck with his nose, getting even closer to him. Stiles glances at him but Derek seems asleep.

In the morning, Stiles notices that at some point of the night he drifted off too. The girls are nowhere in sight and he guesses they’re having breakfast.

Stiles doesn’t remember what he dreamed of that night, but when Derek wakes up and doesn’t make a big deal about them cuddling, when he offers him a clean shirt to go home with, when he fucking smiles at him as they have breakfast, he knows that if this is a dream, it’s one he doesn’t want to wake up from.

\-- --

He sees Derek again three days later during grocery shopping. Stiles likes to think that fate keeps making them run into each other, but that’s stupid. And he’s too old to believe in fate anyway.

Derek notices him first though and comes closer asking about his day and about Erica. They make small talk for a while until the man seems unsure as to how to take the conversation somewhere else.

“Spit it out” Stiles states.

“What?”

“I can almost see your words struggling to get out.”

“We’re friends, right?” Derek asks.

It doesn’t feel like a punch in the stomach. It totally doesn’t. He picks a bottle of olive oil and tosses it into the shopping cart.

“Yeah, of course” he answer, not missing a beat. He does look away though, not wanting his eyes to reveal that he wants to be more than just friends with Derek.

“I need to ask you for a favor.”

When he doesn’t say anything for a while, Stiles starts to worry about the kind of favor that Derek wants from him that can’t be just said.

“Could you please let Lydia stay at yours for a few days? Maybe Laura too? Cora has her own apartment, even if she loves to drop at my mom’s every day.”

“What’s wrong? What happened?” he asks immediately, worrying about why would Derek want to hide his family.

“Lydia’s mother finally agreed to sign the divorce but I don’t want her anywhere near Lydia. And if I know her even just a bit, she’ll drop by to annoy us all. Besides, my sisters hate her, so yeah. It’ll just be for a few days.”

Stiles frowns. He doesn’t know the whole story about what happened between Derek and his soon-to-be ex wife, but he knows that there was abuse somewhere in there, and the bad, repetitive kind, otherwise, the mother would be allowed to see Lydia. She can’t because she has a restraining order.

“Okay. When does your ex get to the city?”

Derek, visibly relieved, sighs “I don’t know for sure. It should be next week, but trust Kate to appear out of nowhere. I’ll help you cover Lydia’s expenses. I’ll try to convince Laura to go to a hotel.”

“No, no, no. Laura can stay too. Especially if I need to work a night shift. I don’t want to bother my Dad every time I _have_ to pull a night shift.”

“I’m pretty sure it doesn’t bother him” Derek replies.

“Well, have you met Erica? She can be pretty difficult to deal with.”

“Just like Lydia” he replies.

Stiles shoves Derek playfully, he snickers and Stiles thinks that the day he gets tired of that sound, he’ll probably be dead.

\-- --

Next Saturday, Laura is at his door holding a pillow under her right arm. Lydia is right next to her. She gives a quick “Hi, Stiles” and runs to Erica’s bedroom.

“So… do I get the couch?” Laura asks.

“What? No! You get the futon in the guest room.”

She seems oddly pleased about this and finally comes in.

During the afternoon they talk about work, movies and the girls. Laura tells him stories about Derek and Lydia, like that time they went camping in the preserve and Lydia made Derek take her back home _where the civilization is_. Laura laughs as if that moment is printed behind her eyelids permanently. Stiles laughs with her.

All in all, they have a good time until he needs to go to work. He gives Laura his number and tells her that if anything happens, she calls 911 first and then him. He knows he’ll be patrolling and that could be an impediment to get home and something could happen to Erica in the meantime.

When he leaves, Laura, Lydia and Erica are talking in hushed whispers, Laura looking at his direction with an amused smile. Stiles wonders what can they possibly be talking about, but decides that maybe it’s better if he doesn’t know.

\-- --

Things go smoothly in the house while Lydia stays there. Derek comes every morning to pick up the girls, bearing coffee for him and his sincere smile. Stiles could get used to it. Though he’d definitely prefer waking up next to Derek again, and again, and again.

The fourth day of Lydia’s stay, when Stiles opens the door, Derek is on the phone. He’s got his smile on but it’s obviously not directed to Stiles. Not when he’s talking to someone as if they hung the moon.

“Hot date?” Stiles jokes when Derek gets in having finished his call.

“Sort of- Yeah.”

Stiles is determined to not let it show in his face how much it hurts him. So he guides Derek to the kitchen where the girls are finishing their breakfast.

“Laura, can you pick up the girls from school today?”

“Give me a good reason that doesn’t involve certain blonde woman” she replies. Stiles wonders if Kate is blonde or if Derek’s hot date is blonde. He doesn’t like the idea of either.

“No, it doesn’t. Actually, I’m going out with a _friend_.”

Derek says the word ‘friend’ in a wrong way. So wrong, he thinks he’s going to be sick. Laura arches her eyebrows as if understanding what he means and nods. However, when the girls and Derek leave, Laura frowns and looks at him.

“When are you going to ask my brother out?”

Stiles is glad that he isn’t drinking the coffee Derek brought him because he’s sure that he would’ve spat it out.

“What?”

“Do you think I’m blind?” she insists.

“I- I- I don’t know what you’re talking about” Stiles stammers. Laura obviously doesn’t buy it.

“Now you’re just insulting my intelligence, loverboy.” She takes a sip from her coffee, staring at him the whole time, as if expecting him to come clean about something.

When he doesn’t say anything, Laura snorts and adds “Look, I don’t know if you've noticed but my brother is crazy about you, and clearly you’re crazy about him too. I saw how tense you got when he said ‘friend’ all wrong.” Stiles is wondering how did Laura pick up on all this, especially because they’ve barely spent time together. Then he remembers that Laura had a major in psychology, even if she never put it to good use, and he mentally slaps himself.

“To be honest, I just thought you two were friends-“

“We _are_ friends” he interrupts.

“–that Derek had finally found a friend he actually liked, not like all those jerks he has to meet for work” she continues, ignoring Stiles’ input completely. “But your daughters made me notice there was more.”

“Erica?” he asks surprised.

“And Lydia. They’ve been wondering why two people who clearly like each other don’t make any moves to be together like in the movies. Naturally, I tried to explain to them that sometimes people are just friends who love each other platonically, but they insisted. So I observed.”

Stiles knows there’s nothing he can argue about that. She probably even knows how often he thinks about Derek by now.

“Laura-”

“No, no, no. Whatever you’re about to say, just no. I know my brother and I can see the way he looks at you when he thinks no one is looking. I can see the way he gives you his full-on smiles that illuminate his whole face, smiles that he usually gives to Lydia and no one else. I can see his fond expression when anyone mentions you and you’re not around; he gets this small grin as if he’s remembering something pleasant that he can’t get tired of, and his eyes are so full of _something_ that screams smitten. Something I never connected to you before but now it’s so obvious.”

Stiles doesn’t want to get his hopes up, not when Derek is going on dates with probably beautiful women who are smart and classy and can keep up with his ramblings about art and French architecture. He had tried learning what he could, but he’d rather see the way Derek’s whole face lights up and his excited voice would make the words flow easily as he talks about things that actually mean a lot to him. And- _fuck._ He’s hopelessly gone for Derek _._

Laura seems to read his thoughts and nods, satisfied. “Ask him out, Stiles.”

And Stiles wants to comply and call Derek _right the fuck now_ , but he waits, knowing that it would be better if he got his thoughts in order first.

\-- --

Derek is on his door earlier the next day.

‘Earlier’ is putting it mildly though.

Stiles had heard a car parking outside but no one knocking on the door. He glanced at his watch and frowned when he confirmed that yes, it was indeed 5:35 am. It was impossible that Derek was on his door, so he took his gun out of its holster and checked for the chamber. Stiles kept the gun carefully hidden as he reached for the door.

Derek’s car is parked in his driveway and for a second he entertains the thought of Derek’s car parked there every day, sharing his house with him. He gestures him to come in. After a moment of hesitation, the man walks towards Stiles.

“What happened to your face?” Is the first thing that leaves his mouth when he notices Derek’s puffy and red left eye that had clearly received a punch. He knows it’s going to be black and ugly in a few hours. The man is also sporting some ugly scratches along his left cheek and jaw.

“Nothing, it’s just-“

“What. Happened. To your face.” He repeats, voice cold, clenching the fist that is not holding the gun at his side. He realizes what a bad idea is to have a charged weapon in his hand when anger towards whoever had dared to put a hand in Derek fills his mind

Derek shakes his head and pushes past Stiles to get in. “How come you’re awake?”

“I got home around 2 last night. Or in the morning, whatever.” He puts the safety back on his gun and saves it in the first kitchen cabinet he opens on his way and walks back to the living room. He’ll put it away later, he reminds himself. “I had some paperwork to go through for my Dad so I just stayed up. Now, stop changing the subject and tell me what happened to you.”

Since Derek isn’t very eager to share, Stiles goes back to the kitchen and takes out the medicine kit he keeps under the sink. The one upstairs is more complete, but he knows he won’t be needing stitches or Erica’s meds. That’s when his mind starts to wonder if maybe Derek was hurt in other places. He can’t know for sure until he checks. Not that he wants to check Derek out. Okay, maybe he does, but that’s out of the table right now.

When he comes back, Derek is staring off into space, completely lost in his own head and Stiles thinks he’s never wanted a name so badly to find that fucker and put them down.

He sits next to Derek in the couch and waits for him to say something, to react in some way. But after a couple of minutes Stiles is getting antsy so he puts his hand on Derek’s cheek and gently turns his head to face him so he can assess the damage.

The scratches don’t look too bad, but they are deep enough to have bled so he thinks that he should clean them up to avoid an infection. Stiles fumbles through the medical kit until he finds some gauze and a small bottle of antiseptic. Derek hisses when it touches his face.

“Don’t be a baby, Derek.”

“It stings.”

“Yeah, well, better some discomfort now than an infection later.”

Derek stops protesting after that.

When Stiles is done, he puts some band aids over Derek’s scratches, and if his hand lingers for a little too long, the other man doesn’t seem to care.

Back in the kitchen, he leaves the medical kit on top of the counter and goes to the freeze to find an ice pack. When the only thing he can find is frozen peas and hamburgers, he decides that Derek is gonna have to deal.

“I’m sorry. I don’t know what happened to the ice packs. I thought I had bought some after Erica’s last stunt.” 

Derek gives him a small smile as he takes the frozen peas. It’s so sweet and beautiful that he wants to kiss it out of his face.

“Will you tell me what happened?” Suddenly a thought crosses Stiles’ mind and since he can’t keep his mouth shut, he blurts out “Did your hot date do this?”

“What? Jennifer? No! She’s lovely. I actually had a nice time with her yesterday.” After a beat, he adds “it was Kate.”

Stiles decides to ignore his jealousy in favor of his anger towards Derek’s ex.

“She did this to you? I should have taken you to the station.”

“No, just- No, Stiles. I want her to go away, and she won’t leave if we go to court or if I put another restraining order on her.”

“Is this why you two separated?” he asks after a few seconds have passed. His mind races through all the possible scenarios in which Derek was beaten by his ex, and he’s just so angry because Derek doesn’t deserve this. He deserves to be happy and cherished. He deserves someone to tell him every day how amazing he is, how important he is. Derek needs to be protected and loved and fuck it _Stiles_ wants to be the one doing that. He wants to be that person for Derek.

“She used to be different, Stiles. She wasn’t always like that. She was loving and sweet and she would laugh at my stupid jokes. She would discuss books with me for hours, and then she’d talk to me about travelling together. We made so many plans and when we got married, she was so bright and beautiful. But at some point after our first year together, she sort of slipped away.

“It was the small things first: not wanting to stay home on Saturday night; stupid arguments about TV shows that ended up with her locked in our room for days; refusing to let my sisters come to our apartment. Then it just got ridiculous. I mean, we ended up moving to New York so she was happy and far away from my family.”

Stiles’ need to hear Derek’s story is overridden but his desire to find Kate and punch her in the face. He knew where this was going and he didn’t want to hear Derek admit how much Kate hurt him.

“When she got pregnant she seemed alive again. She was like the Kate I had married two years before. I swear that I thought she’d be better by the time Lydia was born. But she wasn’t.

“Not even two months after Lydia was born, she started drinking and disappearing for days, even weeks at a time. She’d come home yelling and throwing whatever was at her reach. She would want to go to see Lydia and throw a fit when I wouldn’t let her. It’s how she started taking it out on me. I thought that as long as she kept her hands away from the baby, I could take it, that Lydia would be safe from her.

“One day, I got earlier from work because I couldn’t shake the feeling that something was wrong, even when Kate hadn’t been home for two weeks. When I got there, all I could hear was Lydia crying and Kate screaming. I ran inside and I saw Kate shaking Lydia and yelling insults at her about how she ruined everything. I- I fought her to get Lydia back and took her downstairs. On my way out, I saw Lydia’s nanny unconscious on the kitchen floor and I ran. Next thing I know, I’m adjusting Lydia in her car seat and Kate is throwing a bottle from the door. It broke a window and made Lydia cry louder, so I just got in and drove. The last image I had from Kate in months was of her screaming and running behind the car.”

A few years ago, a woman had screamed at Erica when she had thrown a fit and tossed a doll that had reached the other woman. Stiles had lost it and told her to apologize to her daughter or that he’d seen her arrested. He didn’t know what he would have done if someone from their family had ever done that, but he was sure that he would bring the Earth down for his daughter.

However, Derek had to see the woman he had loved, _Lydia’s mother_ , beating her, abusing her, abusing them both. And Stiles has never been so angry in his whole life. It’s not the hot, explosive anger he felt when he saw Derek hurt, but a new kind of icy rage that freezes his insides and fills him with determination. He sits straighter and looks past Derek, as if he could put Kate behind the bars where she belongs out of sheer willpower.

Apparently, he’s been silent for too long because Derek glances up at him. Stiles meets his eyes, wondering how someone could even think about hurting someone who looks so vulnerable, so fragile, someone who deserves the world.

Stiles reaches for Derek’s hand and squeezes it. “I won’t let her come anywhere near you or Lydia. Ever.”

Derek’s raw emotion makes him want to wrap him in his arms and never let him go again, but damn, he knows it won’t be well welcomed in the state Derek is in.

“Stiles-“ he begins, face inching closer to Stiles and _whoa, that is unexpected_.

Right at that moment though, Laura decides to get in the living room, looking as if she just fell off of bed, which is a real possibility given how she’s rubbing her left arm with her right hand, grimacing. Stiles sits back, just noticing how dangerously close he had been to Derek, cursing his luck, because of course someone would interrupt.

“What are you two doing up at this ungodly hour?” she asks.

“I could ask you the same, you know” Stiles says.

“I fell off. I figured I could just get up. It’s almost six and I have a reunion at 7:30 with a client from- _Jesus fucking Christ_ what happened to you Derek?”

Derek looks down, trying to avoid Laura’s gaze, but she’s already by the sofa examining the wounds herself.

“It was her wasn’t it?” It’s all she says. She stands up and walks towards the door.

“Laura what are you doing?” Derek inquires tiredly.

“I am going to kill her. Don’t wait up. I might have to make a quick escape, she’s probably gonna be loud.”

“Laura” Stiles warns.

“ _You_ don’t understand what’s happening. I’m going.”

Stiles follows her to the front porch where she appears to have realized she’s barefoot and on her pajamas, staring at her feet.

“Laura, please come back inside” he says quietly.

“I can’t.”

Stiles didn’t think that Laura and Derek could look so alike as they did in that moment. He wished he could find a way to make everything better, but he knew there wasn’t a magical solution for people’s problems. And even if there was, he probably wouldn’t be able afford it.

He walks to Laura, takes her by the elbow and guides her back inside. As soon as he closes the door, he wraps Laura in a one-arm embrace.

“Why can’t she just disappear?” she whispers. “She’s done enough already.”

“I wish I knew, Laura. I wish I knew.”

Stiles leaves her in the kitchen, with a cup of coffee and goes back to Derek who hasn’t moved an inch from where he was sitting. He reaches for Derek’s hand and tugs. 

“Come on. If you don’t want me to take you to the station, then you’ll go to sleep. It’s a non-negotiable offer” Stiles says.

Derek looks up at him; his gaze going from lost to mildly confused to one fond and full of something else Stiles can’t place. He remembers what Laura told him the day before, _his eyes are so full of_ something _that screams smitten_ , and he wonders what he looks like when he looks at Derek.

Derek stands up and follows him, never letting go of his hand. Derek frowns when Stiles opens the door to the master bedroom.

“I’m gonna stay up and drop the girls at school so you better sleep until 12 or something.”

“This is your room” Derek deadpans.

“Well, I’m not going to let you sleep in Laura’s mess, am I? Just get some rest.”

“I have to go to work” he adds as if it gives him headache.

“You’re calling in sick. End of the discussion.”

Stiles pulls Derek inside the room and shoves him to sit in the bed. He doesn’t want to let go of his hand but it’s not as if he’s got an excuse to hold it anymore, so reluctantly he lets go. He turns around to leave but Derek stops him taking his hand. Wow, he really wishes Derek did that more often.

“Thank you” he mumbles looking at him as if he’d saved a life, his marbled gray-green eyes full of amazement and wonder. Stiles only smiles in response since he doesn’t think he can manage a word.

\-- --

After Stiles drops the girls at school he’s got a mild headache. Lydia hadn’t wanted to go until her dad took her (since Stiles didn’t tell her that her dad was sleeping upstairs sporting a black eye, he had told her that Derek had overslept). She had thrown a fit Erica style: didn’t want to have breakfast, didn’t put on her shoes, and didn’t listen to Laura when she warned her that she was getting grounded if she didn’t get into the car. Stiles ended up carrying Lydia to the car in a fireman carry while Laura got in the back of the car and made her put her shoes and have a sandwich as breakfast. Erica had only smirked the whole time and refused to get in the car while Lydia was being a baby.

They were late to school and Laura whined the whole ride back about forgetting half of her stuff and being late for work thanks to her niece. Sleep deprivation and fatigue were taking its toll on Stiles and he just wanted to get to his room and sleep for the foreseeable future.

Stiles stumbles twice on his way up the stairs and that’s once more than usual so he must be really exhausted. He flops down his bed, eyes already closed, not even bothering to take his shoes off, and startles when there’s another body already there.

“What the-“

He flails helplessly for a few seconds in his weak attempt to get up and hears a grunt when his elbow connects to someone’s abs. _Derek’s abs_ , he remembers. He is falling over the edge of the bed the moment he gets reminded of that. Right, because he left Derek sleeping in his bed before he dropped the girls at school.

“Oh, fuck. Shit. I’m sorry Derek. I completely forgot.”

Derek is glaring at him from his position with a severe case of bed hair and Stiles is dying to run his hands through that dark messy hair.

“Did you break anything?” he asks.

Stiles runs a quick check on himself and shakes his head. “I don’t think so.”

“Could you just get in bed already? I’d like to get a couple of hours of sleep.”

Stiles wonders if he actually fell asleep on the road, died and went to heaven because obviously Derek wouldn’t say that. Not outside of his dreams anyway.

He stands up and looks at Derek who has turned away from him by now.

 _Oh, fuck it. We slept together once anyway_ , he thinks as he toes his shoes off, gets into the bed and lies on his back, staring at the ceiling.

Now that Stiles remembers that night almost two weeks ago, he can’t stop thinking about it. It had been a terrible night for him and Derek had been there to comfort him, to reassure him when he had been on the edge. He had stayed up with Stiles when his anxiety over Erica’s epilepsy wouldn’t let him sleep. They ended up sleeping anyway. Not only sleeping, a voice reminds him. They cuddled. They _cuddled_. And Derek had smiled the morning after.

He shuts his eyes tightly trying to push these thoughts out of his mind when Derek is lying next to him. The last thing he wants is to deal with an awkward boner when Derek is _right there_.

He feels Derek tossing and turning in bed, as if to lie on his back but he can’t be sure. Stiles wants to look at him but doesn’t dare. Not when he can’t get out of his mind Derek’s smile. Stiles is so in love with that smile that illuminates his whole face, making him look younger and even more attractive than he already is, if that’s possible.

Stiles is hyper aware of the short distance that separates them. Derek’s body heat is so close, barely a few inches from him, just one movement away. He wants to touch him desperately. Stiles wants to feel Derek’s hands, Derek’s arms, Derek’s abs, Derek’s everything.

He fists his right hand on the sheets attempting to control himself and failing miserably. Stiles wonders if looking at him will be enough to satisfy his mind for a while. He takes a somewhat deep breath and opens his eyes, turning his head left to where Derek is lying-

Where Derek is lying on his right side looking at him intently.

Stiles’ heart races and he takes a deep breath trying to regain control of himself. Needless to say, his weak efforts fail. So Stiles decides it’s only fair he looks at him too.

He turns to lie on his left side, one hand cushioning his head, the other on top of the covers.

“Hey” Derek says.

“Hi” he replies. It feels so high school that he has to stifle a giggle that threatens to escape his mouth.

Derek’s eyes shift from his eyes to his mouth and they linger. Stiles is suddenly reminded of what Laura said the day before. _My brother is crazy about you_ , Stiles had wanted so badly to ask Derek out after Laura’s speech and now that he has Derek in front of him he is tempted to say things like ‘I really want to kiss you’ or ‘I’m in love with-‘

“I think I’m in love you” Derek blurts out with an intense look in his eyes and a fond smile playing on his lips.

‘-you’ his minds completes after the interruption, then it goes blank.

Stiles loses the ability to put his thoughts into coherent sentences that actually leave his mouth. _Oh my god, Derek I love you so much. I was really just a second away from telling you how much you mean to me. Derek I really want to kiss you. I’m so in love with you,_ are the thoughts that cross his mind as he stares dumbstruck at Derek.

Derek’s smile falters until it disappears completely, a small crease between his eyebrows, his eyes now full of uncertainty and doubt. His hands fidget and he appears more and more uncomfortable by the second.

Stiles’ right hand closes the distance between them before his mind has time to catch up, stroking Derek’s cheek a bare inch from where the skin is swollen and red thanks to Kate’s punch. He hears Derek gasp and Stiles wonders why they haven’t been kissing all this time.

“I’m so in love with you, Derek, you have no idea… and I really want to kiss you right now. Can I kiss you?”

Derek swallows, then nods, probably not trusting his voice.

Stiles brings his face closer to Derek’s, stopping at the last second to just breathe him in, all leather, sweat and _Derek_. Stiles’ heart beats faster, a drum pounding against his ribcage so loud that he’s sure Derek can hear it. Right then he decides to shut down his mind again and instincts take over.

He had imagined a hot, searing kiss that would turn his insides into goo. Instead, they kiss softly, lovingly, causing a different kind of burn, slow and more permanent that. They kiss long and passionately, Derek’s hand rests on his hips, pressing lightly and Stiles feels his blood going hot all over his body.

Stiles isn’t sure who bites first, whose hand presses tighter, he only knows that all of a sudden he isn’t getting _enough_. He feels Derek’s nails scrapping slightly as they move up under his shirt as Stiles breaks their kiss long enough to push Derek to his back and straddle him a second later. Derek gasps, looking back at him surprised, pupils blown with lust, and runs his hands over Stiles’ thighs firmly. Stiles leans down to kiss Derek’s neck, alternating between licking, nipping and sucking right where his neck meets his shoulder.

Derek lets out a filthy moan that goes directly into Stiles’ pants, so he grinds his ass against Derek and groans. He feels Derek’s hand blindly fumbling with the buttons of his pants when he regains a resemblance of consciousness and stops Derek with trembling hands.

“Wait. Derek, stop,” he breathes heavily.

Derek stops abruptly as if he had been slapped and gazes at Stiles, he swallows as Stiles moves from him and settles sitting next to Derek’s legs.

“This” Stiles gestures between them, “I really, really want this. But not right now.”

Derek nods, his hair is disheveled and there’s a bruise forming at the side of his throat. He looks about ready to bolt out the room too.

“Now, I really want to sleep because I’m fucking exhausted, so move your ass over so I can lie down.”

Derek smiles at him when Stiles throws himself onto the bed and fumbles with the covers until he’s under them and pressing his face against Derek’s chest. He sighs contentedly, thinking about how nice it would be to sleep next to Derek every single night for the rest of his life.

Stiles dreams about Derek staying over and then making breakfast together. When he wakes up around 12 and Derek is still there, he thinks he can settle for them cooking lunch this time around.

\-- --

He’s glad he stayed late working so he doesn’t have to worry about it during his free day. Derek stays the whole day. They cook launch, they watch a movie awkwardly cuddling in the sofa and later they pick up their daughters together. Lydia panics and cries when she sees Derek’s eye and they spend a good 15 minutes calming her down.

That night, Derek announces he’s taking his daughter back home. Lydia whines that she loves grandma but wants to stay with Erica, when Derek replies “Actually, we’re going back to our home”, she decides that Erica isn’t going anywhere and that she misses her room a lot. Derek had talked a lot about his apartment and how everything looked as he wanted now and that he was glad they had managed to do it in less than two months.

When Laura comes home, she seems to notice there’s something different about them and smirks knowingly during the whole dinner, but when she leaves with Derek she doesn’t mention it.

He’s tucking Erica in bed when she asks “Have you told Lydia’s dad that you like him yet?”

Whatever it’s said later, he doesn’t trip over nothing next to his daughter’s bed.

“What?”

“You know what, dad. Why haven’t you kissed him like in the movies. You like him and he likes you too.”

His mind wanders back to the way they had been kissing a few hours before. That certainly happened in movies. Maybe not the ones his daughter was talking about though.

“Erica, whatever I’m up to with Lydia’s dad isn’t something I’m gonna discuss with you,” he replies. “Besides, what have I told you about believing everything that’s displayed in the movies?”

“That not everything that happens in movies happens in real life. But I thought that was about flying in a broomstick.”

“It also applies to most things in life.”

Erica frowns but lets it go.

“But just so you know, _if,_ hypothetically, I had told Derek I like him and he had said he liked me back or something similar, we’d still have a long way to go before you and Lydia can go around introducing yourselves as sisters. You know, if Derek and I got together in this hypothetical situation.”

Erica smiles knowingly and nods. When Stiles is turning off Erica’s light, he hears her mumble “Lydia will be so happy to hear this.”

He shakes his head and goes to bed not long after that.

\-- --

It’s three days afterwards that he sees Derek again, when he and Lydia are coming to pick them up to show them the apartment. As soon as Stiles opens the door, Lydia hurries inside as usual, leaving Derek and Stiles alone in the entrance.

“They will find a way to stay here longer than actually needed, you know,” Stiles says. “So you could come in, have something to drink and then we leave.”

Derek nods and walks with him to the kitchen. They don’t talk until Stiles has served him a coffee. They can see the girls through the kitchen window.

“Lydia knows something happened,” Derek blurts out.

“Yeah, Erica too. I think they’ve knew even before us.”

Derek laughs and Stiles can’t help but stare at the way his beautiful face looks much younger and carefree. He wants to wrap Derek in his arms and never let him go. Just hug him until inevitably one of the girls interrupts them.

“Stiles, about the other day…“ he trails off.

And for a second Stiles thinks Derek is about to apologize, to say something really stupid like he didn’t mean it, that it was a mistake, and Stiles closes his eyes, bracing for the killing blow.

“Stiles, look at me.” And Stiles does so. “I really meant it, you know. Did you-?”

“If you’re about to ask me if I really meant it when I said I’m in love with you, then I’m gonna punch you in the face.”

Derek smiles and shakes his head fondly. Stiles doesn’t realize until it’s a little too late, that they’ve been inching towards each other during their conversation. They’re so close that Stiles can smell him, he can feel the heat coming off him, he can feel Derek’s heart beating fast when he reaches to touch him.

And just like that, they’re kissing, softly, slowly, passionately. Stiles’ hands reach Derek’s neck and he holds to him like a lifeline, the only thing keeping him from drifting into space when Derek kisses him like he’s the most precious thing in the world.

“I told you we were gonna be sisters some day,” Lydia’s voice says.

It feels like they’ve been hit by lightning, they almost jump a feet apart from each other and glance towards the doorway, where Lydia and Erica are standing.

“There’s a logical explanation to-” Stiles rushes to say.

“Oh, come on dad, I know you’ve got the hots for Lydia’s dad. Don’t’ worry, I approve him.”

Stiles is seriously considering taking the TV away from Erica, she’s eight years old, she shouldn’t know what that means.

When Stiles doesn’t answer anything for the longest time, Erica adds “are we going to Lydia’s home or not?”

Those words appear to bring Derek out of his trance and he says “yeah, we should…Hmm… We should go, yeah.”

Stiles spends the whole ride stealing glances at Derek, not bothering to say anything when Erica starts asking questions like “does this mean I can say Lydia’s my sister?” or “Dad, can we go tell aunt Laura –I  can call her aunt Laura now right? Dad, can I tell grandpa and grandma?”

Derek looks slightly worried but just let's their girls ask as many questions as they want, only answering in a small smile directed to Stiles.

Derek’s loft looks way different than the last time he had been there, for Lydia’s birthday almost a year ago. There are bigger windows, a bigger lounge and it’s filled with light that seems to come from every surface.

Lydia and Erica hurry up the stairs where the redhead can show her how beautiful and pink her room looks. Stiles and Derek sit in the lounge, and talk about the usual: work, the girls, vacations. Derek mentions Paris but doesn’t try to invite Stiles again and he’s slightly grateful. It’s a pretty normal afternoon, a lot like every afternoon they had spent before Derek blurted out that he loves him. Maybe they steal a few kisses here and there, a fleeting touch while they cook together, knowing glances when they’re eating but otherwise it’s a pretty normal day.

They drive back to Stiles’ place around eight, after he mentions that he need to work early the following day. Erica goes inside as soon as he opens the door, but he lingers outside wanting to say something, _anything_ to Derek. He misses his opportunity when Derek’s lips meet his in a short goodnight kiss.

“Goodnight, Stiles” Derek says already walking back to his car.

It isn’t really a great night when he can’t sleep. He jerks off like a desperate teenager in the dead of night, thinking of Derek’s hands on him, Derek’s lips, Derek’s everything.

He dreams he’s on top of Derek again, the older man moaning his name as he comes. Stiles jerks off again during his morning shower.

\-- --

Stiles loves Derek and he knows Derek must love him back. He knows it when Derek knocks on his door to pick up Erica when he’s had a night shift. He knows it when Derek drops by the station and brings him lunch, he knows it when Erica has a seizure in school and Derek races to the hospital to see them even when he was visiting a building almost two hours away from Beacon Hills.

Stiles loves Derek and, apparently, Derek loves Stiles too. That’s exactly why he finds it hard to understand why they never make it past second base. They’ve gone out in dates, thanks to Melisa offering to babysit more often than necessary, that end in long make out sessions in Stiles’ couch, heated touches that were borderline groping but they never go any further.

He comes home from work to find Derek asleep on his couch.

“Erica?” he calls, but apparently Derek’s the only one home. Stiles pretends he doesn’t think about Derek being there every day.

Derek groans as he wakes up.

“Hey, you,” Stiles says.

“Fuck. I didn’t mean to fall asleep.”

Stiles smiles. “Were you here for any particular reason?”

Derek smiles shyly, but his eyes gleam with something wicked.

“Laura took the girls to the movies. They probably won’t be back ‘til later.”

Derek barely gets to finish his sentence when Stiles is already jumping the couch to straddle his hips. They kiss hungrily, all tongues and teeth as if they couldn’t get enough. Derek’s hands going up and down his sides, Stiles letting his head drop to the back when Derek’s kisses make their way down his neck.

Stiles’ shirt is on the floor shortly after that, he moans loudly when Derek’s teeth graze over the delicate skin.

“Are you sure?” Derek asks.

“I’ve been sure for months now, Derek. Shut up and put your mouth to good use.”

The older man grins, taking hold of the back of Stiles’ thighs and picking him up from the couch.

“Fuck,” Stiles groans at the friction. “Are you gonna carry me upstairs too?” he pants.

Derek seems to take that as a challenge when he carries Stiles all the way to his room, then gently puts him down, leaning on top of him.

“Damn it, Derek you’re so hot.”

Stiles shuts up when Derek kisses him again, this time deeper, taking his time, and to him it all comes down to pure bliss.

\-- --

Stiles is looking at Erica, Lydia and Isaac playing in the park. Scott is sitting next to him, typing something on his phone.

“Are you gonna tell me why you insisted we met today?” Stiles asks.

“Allison and I are officially Isaac’s foster family,” he answers.

“Congratulations, man!”

“And Allison is two months pregnant.”

Stiles stares at Scott and then he looks at Isaac.

“We still want to adopt Isaac though, but we’re not sure if they’ll let us stay with him when there’s another kid in the picture.”

Isaac is laughing, running away from Lydia in what looks like a game of tag. The kid looks happier than he’s ever seen him, less troubled, and definitely he looks free. Stiles would hate that Isaac lost the little stability he has by being taken away from Scott and Allison. Specially when Scott already acts like he’s been with Isaac his whole life.  He likes Isaac and he thinks that Scott and Allison are the best people for him to have.

“Scotty, if there’s something I learned from the adoption process with Erica is that there’s no way they’ll take a kid away from a loving home like yours. I’m sure Isaac is with you guys for good.”

Scott looks down to his lap, hiding his embarrassment. Stiles distracts himself following the children with his eyes.

“So are you and Derek-?” he gestures with his hands in something that could be vaguely interpreted as _are you together?_

Stiles thinks back to their stolen mornings after the girls are in school, their hungry kisses in a restaurant bathroom stall, the lazy afternoons when Stiles has the day off.

“Yeah, I guess we are.”

“Good. Come over and bring the girls. There will be celebratory dinner. It was about time one of you did something”

Stiles playfully shoves Scott away as he laughs.

Next Saturday, they have a huge barbecue to welcome Isaac to the family. Derek and Stiles may or may not have escaped to the upstairs bathroom to have a quickie. If Scott asks about the scratches in the door, Stiles has no idea.

\-- --

Because Stiles is actually stupid, he agrees to go to France with Derek. He tried to get out of it claiming it was unfair of Derek to ask important question while blowing him but it didn’t work. That’s why he’s got a sleeping Erica on his lap while they wait for a taxi that takes them to their hotel at 2 am.

Their flight had been delayed and they had missed their taxi reservation and now Stiles was sitting with the girl while Derek angrily hisses at his phone in French. He wishes he could enjoy Derek’s sexy voice in French but he’s cold and he seriously just wants to sleep next to the sexiest boyfriend anyone could have.

By the time they arrive to Les Jardins d’Eiffel, Stiles put his daughter to bed and goes to the other room in the suite, falling asleep as soon as his body touches the mattress.

The next day, they go on a tour by the city guided by Derek, who’s telling them stories from his year studying there. Lydia is the most excited of them all, pointing at everything she sees and asking Derek if he had been there and how had it been before.

In the afternoon, Derek takes them to the Conciergerie and later to the Louvre where he is certainly the most excited. He rambles restlessly about the wings of the castles, the pillars, the high windows, pretty much everything. Stiles loves the way Derek’s eyes crinkle when he smiles in the middle of an explanation, how he gestures for them to see something, his voice when he explains something to the girls.

God, Stiles is so in love.

“I love you so much,” he interrupts him.

Derek looks up to him and gives him his biggest smile, dimples and all and Stiles can’t resist the impulse to kiss him, so he does.

That night, when the girls are already asleep with Derek’s arm is draped over his waist and his steady breath on the back of his neck, Stiles mumbles sleepily, “I could do this forever.”

Derek’s arm tighten around his waist and he replies “Kate and I have our mandatory settlement conference the second week of December. Three months after that I’ll be a divorced man.”

Stiles’ breath catches at the implications of Derek’s words. He turns around to face him, looking at his open expression and kisses him.

“We can talk about that later. We don’t need to get ahead of ourselves now.”

Derek nods and leans to kiss him.

He falls asleep involved in his boyfriend’s warmth and dreams of a slow dance, his head on Derek’s shoulder, the music soft and their families' happy faces all around them. Waking up next to Derek, Stiles wishes that’s another dream that will come true.


End file.
